Iran International
Iran's ultra-hardliners and vigilantes associated with them are increasingly warning that the Islamic Republic risks alienating its staunchest supporters if authorities continue suspending strict hijab enforcement.
In a viral video circulating on social media last week, ultra-hardliner lawmaker Mohammad-Mannan Raisi blasted the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) for its mid-September decision to halt the implementation of the proposed Hijab and Chastity Law.
The proposed law had been slammed globally for its draconian measures, the UN branding it "gender apartheid".
“The new hijab law marks an intensification of state control over women’s bodies in Iran and is a further assault on women’s rights and freedoms,” the UN said at the time.
Raisi argued that the clerical rule’s “solid core” supporters have endured severe economic hardship out of loyalty to the Islamic Republic, expecting it to uphold the Sharia law. However, by showing indifference to religious beliefs and values, he claimed, authorities are behaving like a secular government and eroding trust among their most devoted base.
“The solid core of the system will be disillusioned if you suspend God’s commandments and fail to implement them based on unjustified expediency,” Raisi warned, suggesting these loyalists could lose their motivation to defend those in power whom they hold responsible for enforcing the Sharia.
The decision of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) not to enforce the controversial law could not have been made without the approval of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has avoided discussing the issue in his speeches for months despite his firm stance in April 2023, declaring that disregarding hijab was “religiously and politically haram (forbidden).”
Authorities appear to be treading carefully, as enforcing the controversial law—punishing violators, including businesses, with hefty fines and prison sentences—could spark fresh anti-government protests.
Defiance of hijab rules has significantly grown among Iranian women since the violently suppressed 2022-2023 protests that followed the death of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police.
The young woman was arrested for not wearing her hijab properly, leading to a tidal wave of opposition to the decades-long law.
Many women now refuse to wear the compulsory head covering, long tunics, and trousers as dictated by the country's Shariah law. They are also now often seen singing and dancing in public in defiance of the religious establishment.
The crackdowns, which led to more than 500 deaths of protesters at the hands of security forces during the initial uprising, and thousands more arrests, have seen Iran levied with global sanctions, which come in addition to sanctions for its nuclear program and support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Sanctions have seen Iran land in its worst economic crisis since the founding of the Islamic Republic, at least one-third of the country now living below the poverty line, and Iran increasingly isolated on the world stage.
Raisi, who led hardliner Saeed Jalili’s campaign in Qom during June’s snap presidential election, is closely aligned with the ultra-conservative Paydari (Steadfastness) Party and its allies, including Jebhe-ye Sobh-e Iran (Iran Morning Front).
His remarks came just days after an unprecedented police crackdown on pro-hijab vigilantes who had camped outside the Iranian parliament for over 45 days. While no arrests were reported, religious vigilante groups claim police used excessive force—an unexpected turn for those who have long operated with impunity and, at times, direct security force backing.
Hossein Allahkaram, a spokesman for the pro-hijab protesters, condemned the police response and vowed that demonstrations would resume after the Iranian New Year holidays.
Vigilante groups have historically played a key role in suppressing opposition movements and even participated in high-profile attacks like the storming of the British embassy in 2011 and the Saudi embassy in 2016—both of which triggered diplomatic crises.
Raisi’s warning has ignited intense debate on social media, with critics, particularly supporters of Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, accusing him of issuing veiled threats against the authorities.
So far, most expressions of frustration from vigilante groups are directed at top officials. However, there are also some highly veiled complaints over Khamenei's silence, or approval, of the relative leniency shown in the hijab matter on domestic social media platforms such as Eitaa, a popular forum among ultra-hardliners and their associates.
Their waning influence has not gone unnoticed by those opposing their interference in national governance.
Former IRGC commander turned reformist figure, Ghorbanali Salavatian, wrote in an X post, “They constantly call themselves the ‘solid core’ of the system, as if the country would collapse without them and as if they alone have protected it".
Their conclusion, after facing militants' bullets and a ghostly encounter with the shell-shocked monarch, was that the US could no longer support its longtime ally's rule.
The consequences of Islamic Revolution to follow reverberate to the present day.
Ambassador John Craig, 80, was a young American diplomat when he was tasked with joining an exclusive group to meet the Shah alongside Senate majority leader Senator Robert Byrd.
It was a mission that went undisclosed even to American Ambassador to Iran William Sullivan, Craig told Iran International in an interview in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, where he teaches at the local university.
In a storied career, Craig went on to serve as US ambassador to Egypt and Oman.
“President Carter asked Senator Byrd to make a special trip to Tehran to give him a personal assessment of the longevity of the Shah. There was great concern in Washington”, said Craig, “Could the Shah hold on? Could the Shah defeat the revolution?”
Their task was to help Carter transcend the disagreements within the US foreign policy over whether one of Washington's key allies in the turbulent region could be salvaged and provide an unvarnished take on the Shah's mettle.
“Some were saying, yes, the Shah could hold on, others no. One of the issues in that debate was how much force should be used to put down the revolution,” said Craig.
"There were those who felt that the Shah should really be aggressive and shoot people. And there were those who felt that reforms were the way to defeat the revolution.”
Mission: Tehran
To camouflage the trip's true purpose, Craig and the rest of the group made a diplomatic tour across the Middle East and the North Africa before arriving in Tehran.
Craig touched down in December 1978, just a few months before the Shah was ultimately toppled and as rebellion roiled cities nationwide.
Violence was escalating and martial law was in place as armed anti-Shah demonstrators roamed the streets chanting ‘death to the Shah!’
Because of the security risk, Craig and the team were not able to drive to the Shah’s Niavaran palace and instead flew by helicopter.
“We were flying. You could see out the windows that people were shooting at us,” Craig said.
When they arrived, Craig said he was astonished to see bare walls - no paintings, no antiques - in what was once among the world's most opulent palaces.
It became clear that the Shah was preparing to flee.
“I'm saying to myself, this is really weird. I said to myself immediately, these guys have packed up. They are ready to go. No question about that,” Craig said.
Entering the palace’s Hall of Mirrors, Craig caught sight of the Shah and his wife, Empress Farah Diba, standing to greet them.
'Inert' emperor
“He was comatose. Standing, but inert,” said Craig.
“I noticed that the Shah was looking straight ahead. He was not interacting. His eyes weren't moving. He did not raise his hand. But when the person put their hand in his hand, he didn't grasp it and he didn't shake it,” Craig said.
They went on to have lunch in the palace. Craig said the Shah did not speak once over the course of the meal, leaving the Empress to do all the talking. She appeared to be in control and running the country in the last days of their rule, Craig concluded.
“He didn't eat. He didn't move. He didn't say a word,” said Craig about the Shah.
Pleasantries and small talk dominated the discussion and the violence in the streets went unmentioned. Senator Byrd and Ambassador Craig left convinced that the Shah was unfit to rule.
Little did anyone at the time realize it, but the lunch was to help determine US policy and Iran's future course for the coming decades.
Screaming match
What followed next was a visit by Senator Byrd and Ambassador Craig to Ambassador Sullivan’s house in Tehran to break the news on the special visit.
While Ambassador Craig did not partake in the conversation, he could hear what Sullivan and Byrd were saying.
“There was a lot of screaming and yelling. They were arguing about what our policy should be going forward,” said Craig on the encounter between the two men.
The conversation lasted about three hours, with Sullivan coming to the defense of the Shah and pushing to have the Americans keep him in power. Byrd argued the Shah was already done for and unable to rule over a people in revolt.
On the flight back to the United States, Senator Byrd prepared his report to Carter.
“We were such a small group, of course, that we could hear what the senator was dictating in the memo to the president. So we we all knew what the senator was saying in his memo,” said Craig.
Once they arrived back to D.C, the Senator had a car waiting to take him straight to the White House, where he informed the president of his dire conclusion: the scion of Iran's 2,500-year monarchy was doomed.
“He went back and told the president: This is not going to work," Craig said.
"The Shah cannot continue.”
You can watch the full interview with Ambassador John Craig on YouTube.